For those of you who haven’t been following religious news on the net, a group of former Episcopal bishops, conservatives who have left TEC, and others, have formed the Anglican Church in North America, and it has been recognized as a legitimate Anglican body by some worldwide leaders of the Anglican Communion as an alternative to the Episcopal Church. In other words, six years after Gene Robinson’s consecration, some sort of actual “re-alignment” may be occurring.
At the ACNA recent gathering, Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America spoke of entering into ecumenical relations with ACNA, rather than the Episcopal church. He spoke of certain things that would have to be addressed before the Orthodox Church would ever enter into full communion with this new Anglican body, and these issues are:
1) ACNA must affirm the 7 ecumenical councils
2) Removal of the Filioque clause must occur
3) Calvinism is a “condemned heresy” and must be denied
4) “Anti-Sacramentalism” must be denied
5) Iconoclasm must end
6) Ordination of women must “be resolved”
In other words, there is no way in you-know-where that the Orthodox Church in America is ever going to enter into full communion with ACNA (or TEC, of course). There are already prominent Anglican conservatives defending Calvinism, and rejecting the fifth, sixth, and seventh ecumenical councils. If an Anglican wants to be Orthodox, there is really nothing stopping him or her from actually becoming Orthodox. The ACNA was not set up to become Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic. Any historical Church that is thinking of entering into ecumenical relations with ACNA needs to realize that while ACNA does have a fair-share of sacramental, Anglo-Catholic, folks, a good chunk (the majority?) are evangelicals, and many are evangelical Calvinists. While some evangelicals oppose women’s ordination, others have no problem with it.
If I were still Anglican, ACNA might be a slightly better alternative to TEC, but honestly, it seems to me like it is similar to the same hodge-podge of different beliefs that currently make up TEC and Anglicanism worldwide, except instead of being united by the English crown (or perhaps the prayer book), the ACNA folks are united in their opposition to the moral and theological direction of TEC. Thus we have yet another tenuous alliance. Honestly, I think unification by the crown or prayer book makes for a more lasting alliance than unification by opposition to someone else. I may be looking at ACNA in the most negative way possible. I realize this, but I just can’t see hardcore evangelicals and hardcore Anglo-Catholics, who have strongly differing views on fundamental issues, remaining united too long, especially now that they have effectively left TEC.
…And in other news, conservative Episcopal bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carlolina basically admits that the conservative voice within TEC is so tiny and fractured, that working inside the system for change is basically pointless.
All I can add to your excellent posting is Anglican means your bishop is recognised as such by the Lambeth Conference in England and is normally invited to it (sort of an emotional substitute for the British Empire like the Commonwealth) just like a Roman Catholic is under Rome. Unless/until that happens ACNA’s not an official Anglican church. Most of the world’s Anglicans are Third World conservative nonwhites simpatico to ACNA but the Episcopalians, liberal whites, have the money and of course money talks. Not that all this matters much really as both sides are Protestant denominationalists who commune all baptised Christians.
Episcopalianism Minus Gay Weddings is still not Catholicism nor enough to have a lasting, coherent church.
That said, although Episcopalianism is still a Christian church (required belief in the teachings of the creeds is still on the books), discreet unbelief has been normal there since the ‘Enlightenment’. This group is more likely to really mean the creeds so official ecumenism, in this case teaching them in order to eventually convert them, is less a waste of time.
I am sincerely tired of the money argument when it comes to relations between global south anglicans and american conservatives. It belittles the religious convictions of all parties involved. Truly.
And this: “If an Anglican wants to be Orthodox, there is really nothing stopping him or her from actually becoming Orthodox.”
I wish that were true. It might be true in the abstract, but individual lives are enormously more complicated that this suggests. An Anglican body in communion with the Orthodox–and you know I have no problem with anything on that list–especially in a Western Rite, would be a viable option for my family in a way that becoming Orthodox simply is not.
Annie,
“And this: “If an Anglican wants to be Orthodox, there is really nothing stopping him or her from actually becoming Orthodox.””
I guess what I meant was that I don’t think that the folks who make up ACNA really want to be Orthodox, and aren’t going to change the direction of ACNA to become Orthodox.
I agree the situation for many individuals is more complex than I implied, but judging by a lot of the folks I see are in ACNA, they are happy to be evangelical Anglicans, and in no way would want to be Orthodox.
Traditionalist Anglo-Catholics have no home in ACNA, especially with things developing as they are. At best it is a transitional organization that, speaking cynically, will allow evangelicals to help them pay the court costs. Once that is accomplished, they can decide whether to head for Anglican Use territory or to an OCA friendly group…
All I can add to Derek’s posting is that the OCA has no Western Rite Vicariate; people headed in that direction would join the one under the Antiochians.
I don’t know, YF. Given this opening I could see the formation of an Anglican Orthodox Church that could be in full communion with OCA that would functionally be their Western Rite branch.
While there is no Western Rite Vicariate in the OCA as with the Antiochians, Metropolitan Jonah is friendly to the concept. Archbishop Platon, founder of the OCA, said that he longed to see the Western Rite be part of OCA life. With Metropolitan Jonah being a former Anglican himself, it would not surprise me to see the emergence of a Western Rite within the OCA.
BTW, I just got the Antiochian’s BCP. WAY BETTER than the Book of Divine Worship, and about 25% the size.
One other thought…with my fascination of the “Continuing Anglican” movement, my first question about the ACNA is if they can hold center, which no other group has been able to do. I predict a sudden infestation of scarlet fever.
In being so vehement about breaking off ecumenical contacts with the Episcopal Church, one hopes the Orthodox Church in America, at the local level, shows enough integrity then not to ask Episcopal churches any longer for borrowed premises for new OCA missions — a hospitality on which many Orthodox Christian parishes in North America relied when they started up, and without which they would not exist today. To do so would really smack of opportunistic hypocrisy.
ordination…
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